Artemis's Centaur
by skog dansare
Summary: I wrote this a while ago, and just realized it fit into one of the categories. Was for a school project, but I had fun with it. My first story, so please be nice!


Greek Myth

Part 1

Artemis was bored. She didn't feel like hunting, or looking at the moon, her usual favorite past-times. She didn't want to go see Zeus; he was feeling pretty moody lately because Hera had caught him staring dreamily at some pretty nymph. She toyed with the idea of visiting one of his brothers, her uncles. Hades, although entertaining enough when in the mood, was out of the question because the winter months were just beginning and Persephone had just been returned to him the week before. Poseidon though, now there was a thought! He had just returned from one of his sea voyages and was sure to have some interesting stories to tell. Also, he loved to make up new animals and might be in the mood to do so at request. Hestia and Athena were good friends, but Athena was always taking care of her city and Hestia – well she was Hestia, always helping someone. So, although Artemis had numerous hunting dogs and water nymphs, she wanted something really spectacular, that Hera could be jealous of.

So, she told her nymph attendants that she might be gone the whole night and not to worry about her, and off she went. (With her bow and quiver full arrows of course) And they actually came in handy, because on the way there she managed to acquire a rabbit for a later dinner. When she finally got to his home on the rocks, she knocked on the side of the entryway and said,

"Hello Uncle! It is me, Artemis! May I come in?" After a little while, the curtain of seaweed over the door swung to the side, and her uncle towered over her! He smiled down at her, and she smiled back.

"Come along inside Niece, I have been hoping you would drop by."

She stepped over the threshold, and proceeded to his small table where she sat down and waited for Poseidon to do so too.

After he got them both nectar in his nice shell cups, he sat down and said,

"Well? What have you come here for?"

"Well uncle," she answered "I was feeling awfully bored, so I decided to come down and see if you were in the mood to do any inventing!" She suddenly realized that it was a bit of a risk to ask him this when she still wasn't completely sure what kind of mood he was in.

"Inventing?! Inventing animals you mean? Now where did you get that idea?"

"I was feeling kind of lonely the other day, and like I wanted to go waltz in the fields with someone. But no one was there to do it with! And you are always so good at that sort of thing and so I hoped…"

But she needn't have worried.

"Well, why didn't you say so?! Come on!"

And they proceeded down to the special room that he saved for this sort of thing. Now, it might be rather unusual to hear someone talking about a special room for something so rare attempted, but you must remember that this man was a god, and had a room for just about every day of the month!

As they went, he asked her a few questions about what she wanted her animal to be like. She answered that she would like it to have both human and horse in it, for it to be able to talk back to her, and for it to, like her, take the eternal vow of chastity. He went into the room and told her to wait outside. After a few minutes, he told her to come in again.

When she stepped through the door, she gasped with delight! There, not brought to life yet, was a model of what Poseidon had thought would fit her requests. The model was from the top of the head down to the waist a perfectly normally developed girl, and then on the bottom, was likewise a perfectly beautiful chestnut colored horse from where the shoulders would be (that was where the girl's waist was) down and back to where four beautifully shaped hooves were.

Poseidon, smiling at her delight, took it that she liked the way the model looked, and proceeded to walk around it, whispering the ancient sea language that only he and the sea creatures would ever know. In a few moments, the beautiful creature blinked and opened its eyes. She shook back her long chestnut hair. (It was the same color as her horse's coat.) She took a few prancing steps, and then reared up and whinnied a celebration of being alive!

"Hello, Anezka." whispered Artemis quietly.

Part 2

"Hello!" Anezka's voice was low, but rather like that of an alto singer's. She looked down at herself, Artemis, and Poseidon, working out the differences between herself and them.

"I shall call it, a centaur!" said Poseidon. "It is so beautiful! Artemis, I thank you for the inspiration that created this new race; I shall make more of these beautiful centaurs to breed and be a part of the world forever."

"Why, that is wonderful news, Uncle! And now I shall have Anezka take the eternal vow of chastity, although we should probably not tell Zeus so that when you get a nice breeding herd we can surprise him by giving him one of the babies."

"Yes," said Poseidon "I'm sure that he would love that. I will call you when everything is ready."

Part 3

A few months later, after many happy days shared by Anezka and Artemis, Poseidon summoned Artemis to his horse fields where, since horses and centaurs share many traits, the centaur fields and houses were set up. (They had to have houses, because except for a few horsy traits, they were really quite human.)

She hurried to the fields because she knew that it was likely he was calling her about Zeus's baby centaur. She brought Eros, because it would be his job to cause the baby to forget about his mother, and vice versa, so that neither of them would pine or try to kill themselves or something drastic like that!

They pulled off the taking of the baby without a hitch, and then proceeded to put a loose rope round the little thing's neck; not that he needed it, he was pretty confused after Eros had got through with him!

They made quite an interesting parade, going up the way to Zeus' house. Two gods, with a strange...animal? The lesser gods watching them didn't know what they were looking at! When they finally entered the manor, they were greeted by Anrimus, who took one look at the baby centaur and ran away. By now, after being confused, lost, and ran away from, the baby centaur was feeling quite overwhelmed and, not knowing what else to do, started to cry. Artemis quickly realized that quick and drastic measures must be taken, and so she (through some saintly powers of persuasion) managed to get Anrimus over to her so that she could tell him to get her some milk. As soon as the little thing had some milk inside of him, his tears cleared up right away, and they continued.

And finally, there he was! Zeus, in all of his splendor, stared down at them, or the centaur, mainly; he was shocked that such a thing should exist in his kingdom.

They told him what it was and why it was there however, and he began to smile at once. Then, they encountered a bit of trouble. Hera came into the room, took one look at 'the sweet little thing,' as Zeus was now calling the centaur, and said

"Get it out! My goodness, nothing that repulsive should be allowed in this house!"

At which several things happened: first, Poseidon found this extremely offensive and began insulting her in quite a rage, Artemis ran forward to comfort the baby, who had started to cry again, and Zeus came down the steps of his throne, walked right up to his wife's face, and said "Why?" in such a terrifying voice that everyone within the limits of the room froze, turned around, and scuttled to the corners. From there, they were treated to quite a spectacle! Zeus and Hera were arguing at full blast, although since so many of the lesser gods and goddesses were there from following the centaur up, many more people were witnesses than usual.

About half an hour later, when everyone in the room had, by now, at least one time felt like they were going deaf, Zeus and Hera finally stopped arguing and Hera, looking like she was about to start throwing things, stormed from the hall. Zeus, finally realizing that everyone had been watching him the whole time, started to look very sheepish, but cheered up at once when the little centaur galloped toward him, yelling "Daddy!", as a result from Eros's recent work. Zeus scooped him up in his arms, kissed him on the head, turned, and then he, too, was gone from the hall.

Part 4

The next morning, when Zeus yawned and stretched out of his bed, he was a little surprised that Hera was not there. She usually slept in and then they got up around the same time. He didn't really care though, and continued on to the bathroom to brush his teeth and take his morning shower. But, when he went to check on the stable/bed that had been made for the baby centaur, it wasn't there. At first he didn't think anything of it, but after the stable grooms came and told him that they couldn't find the baby to give him his morning meal, he started to get worried.

After an extensive search of the grounds, a very frustrated Zeus decided to go to where all of the rest of the gods sat in the main castle for lunch. As he sat drinking his nectar and mulling over his problem, he started to put two and two together. Hera was not usually gone in the morning without a good reason, and she would probably consider stealing the centaur, now called Davus, a very good cause. As it finally dawned on him, he felt himself growing angrier and angrier. Why, that meddling wife of his! Hestia was sitting right next to him, and, noticing the expression of fury on his face, she asked him what the matter was. He said, "Why, my wife has stolen Davus!"

Part 5

Hestia, at once realizing what problems that this would create for Artemis, rushed at once to the place where she was practicing her archery, and told her what she had heard from Zeus. Upon hearing it, Artemis said,

"Oh my goodness! What a horrible thing. I must go at once to try and rescue Davus!"

But Hestia had other ideas.

"I'm not sure if that is such a good idea, Artemis. You and I both know Hera. She probably has Davus off on some random island with something creepy guarding it. We had better go and seek Athena."

Artemis agreed and they set off, but not before Artemis had run over to her fields and found Anezka so that she could help care for the little centaur when the others were possibly fighting. After a bit of seeking, they found Athena in her temple in Athens, watching over all of the citizens.

They quickly briefed her on what was happening and she, being the goddess of war, wisdom, and the arts, thought about it for a little while and then proposed that when Apollo comes home, they ask him to, on his next outing over the earth in his sun chariot, to try and find where Davus is hidden. Hestia, Artemis, and Anezka thought that that was a great idea, and all agreed to meet at the spot Apollo came down at eight thirty, to be sure to catch him.

Part 6

That night, exactly at the proposed time, three cloaked goddesses and a chestnut centaur met under an olive tree. Hestia, Anezka and Athena agreed that it was a little scary watching a great glowing orb descend toward them, but Artemis said that she had waited for him hundreds of times the same way, and that it would be fine; he landed right next to the rose bush about ten meters away. And it was so; he landed right where Artemis said he would. As soon as he had watered his horses, the three hurried over to him, where they proceeded to tell him of their problem. He said that he would love to help them, and he would make an early start the next day so that he would be able to go slower and therefore be able to look harder.

The next day, after a lot of anxious waiting, there were again three goddesses by the olive tree. But this time they all looked up expectantly to the sky, and when Apollo touched down they didn't even wait until he had watered his horses before rushing up to him. They surrounded him and eagerly asked of his findings.

He told them that Davus was hidden on a tiny island, right off Troy. Two of Hera's Cyclops were guarding the cave in which a small pen for Davus was situated. When they heard that, Artemis and Hestia gasped in horror. He gave them a crudely drawn map to help them get there, and then went off to feed his horses.

When he was gone, Athena grinned. "I think we are going to need Aphrodite for this one!"

Part 7

Aphrodite was with her husband, Hephaestus, watching him make a lightning bolt shaped brooch for Zeus. Artemis and Hestia went inside to find her, while Athena and Anezka waited outside. (Fire made them nervous.) She was very reluctant at first, but soon agreed when they told her that she wouldn't be gone long because Artemis told her that they would be coming back very soon because "We'll be flying, silly!"

And so, off they went. Aphrodite had secured a thing rather like a very large chariot which they all fit very comfortably in, and with the sewing materials that Hestia had brought along, the time passed remarkably quickly!

When they arrived, the "chariot" landed with a soft bump on the smooth sand of the island. To their relief, it was much smaller than everyone had expected, only measuring about seven castle lengths. The knowledge that two Cyclops were on the same the same land as them caused them to make the decision to stick together! They decided to start searching at the middle of the island, because that is always a very good place to start.

And it seemed like it was indeed as they got closer; for they began to hear some very loud and rather grotesque noises. When they could see the things, everyone's heart almost stopped. As soon as everyone had gotten over their initial disgust, Athena called everyone over and, becoming the brave warrior woman that she was, said,

"Now everyone, The Cyclops, although ugly, are really quite funny. They would just love the thought of Aphrodite fancying them, and so that is what she must pretend to do. The main plan is: Aphrodite walks in to the clearing and flirts with them until they get all nice and excited. Then, she leaves, casting loving glances at both of them. If all goes well, they will both think that she is in love with them, and they will get in a fight about which of them she likes better. Understand so far?"

The question was evidently directed at Aphrodite, who just gave a whimper in reply. Ignoring the pitiful look on her face, Athena continued, now talking solely to Aphrodite.

"If you get hurt, or something goes wrong, Anezka and I will come in and start fighting with the Cyclops; you will go off to the side and join Artemis and Hestia, who will fetch Davus so that we can get out of here!

Everyone watched Aphrodite carefully in the first few minutes, but she soon warmed up to her job and had the Cyclops falling head-over-heels for her. When she left, it was even better than Athena expected because while Hestia, Artemis, and Anezka went to the little cave, the two worked themselves into such a rage that they killed each other!

When it was all over, the bedraggled group plodded down the beach where they climbed wearily into the "chariot" and made their way home.

Part 8

On the way home, they all decided that it would be best to first return Aphrodite to her home, and then return Davus to Zeus.

As soon as the "chariot" touched down near the forge, Aphrodite raced out of it, and into her husband's arms. Leaving the happy couple, the remaining five continued on to where Zeus was.

When he saw Davus, he gave a cry of joy, and the two raced toward each other. Artemis, Athena, Hestia, and Anezka looked on and smiled. After Zeus had finished cuddling the centaur, he looked up at the four with an expression of deep gratitude on his face.

"How did you ever find him?" he exclaimed.

"Well," replied Artemis, "It's a long story, and we'll tell you later, but now we need to work out a deal with your wife that will ensure Davus's safety.

And so it was done; and among other things, it required her not to hurt him in any way, not to try and steal him, and to give him adequate living quarters.

And in time, she too began to love him and look upon him with care.

But in the meantime, the four friends congratulated each other on a job well done, and went on to share many more happy days together.

The End


End file.
